


Untimely Crossings

by Lunar_Cycle139



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Eventual Relationships, Eventual Smut, F/M, Implied/Referenced Torture, Minor Character Death, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-07
Updated: 2019-08-09
Packaged: 2019-11-13 04:12:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18024458
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lunar_Cycle139/pseuds/Lunar_Cycle139
Summary: What Albus Dumbledore never expected to find, in Wools Orphanage was not one but two magical children.  The young eleven-year-old blonde in question, smiled serenely at him, meeting his piercing gaze with bright doe eyes. Luna explained, “I came to be at Wools after a fire destroyed my home. You see my mom was a brilliant witch but, she did love to experiment. And one of her spells went wrong. I lost both of my parents that day. It was awful, but I’ve got Tom."AU, Time Travel, Canon Divergence.





	1. The Castle Rook

**Author's Note:**

> *I do not own Harry Potter, the universe and its beloved characters belong to the very talented J.K. Rowling *

“I believe that everything happens for a reason. People change so that you can learn to let go, things go wrong so that you appreciate them when they’re right, you believe lies so you eventually learn to trust no one but yourself, and sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together.”  
— Marilyn Monroe  
************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

On the outskirts on Ottery and St. Catchpole, over the hill with a stream at its base, sat the home of Xenophilius and Pandora Lovegood, and their daughter Luna. The house sat on a lopsided hill, it resembled a giant chess rook. A bit eccentric and odd looking to most, the Castle Rook was home to the Lovegood family. 

The youngest resident was busy skipping rocks across the stream, careful to avoid the green moss piles that attract the Nargles. Luna wandered into the garden and sat on top of the Snargaluff stump which had always seemed to enjoy the youngest Lovegood’s company and hardly found the incentive to attack her. Luna remembered watching her mother juice the Snargaluff pods inside the Snargaluff stump, for one of her experiments. Her mother was a brilliant witch and loved to experiment. She was currently in her workshop working on one of those experiments since just after breakfast. It is getting quite late, Luna thought to herself, perhaps I better check on her. Luna sat up from the stump rather quickly annoyed the Snargaluff ejected one of its pods that propelled Luna several feet into the garden, Luna landed on top of one of their garden Gnomes. A village of Gernumblies lived in the Lovegood garden, since last spring when they had to evacuate their home in the Weasley garden just down the hill. Excuse me Mr. Gnome, Luna apologized. The Gnome was not pleased, and swiftly bit her finger. Not one to be unsettled easily, Luna looked at her finger, “hmm he bit me”, she shrugged and headed inside eager to show her father her Gnome bite. “How wonderful! Gnome saliva is enormously beneficial!” said Mr. Lovegood, seizing Luna’s outstretched finger and examining the bleeding puncture marks. “Luna, my love, if you should feel any burgeoning talent today--perhaps an unexpected urge to sing opera or to declaim in Mermish--do not repress it! You may have been gifted by the Gernumblies!” Luna smiled serenely, knowing her father had done a lot of research on Gernumblie magic. She promised him she would not suppress a gift bestowed by the Gernumblies and headed down to her mother’s work shop to visit her. 

“Mum, she called down, I was bitten by one of our garden Gnomes and daddy says that I may have been gifted with an unexpected talent. “Well you don’t say” Pandora Lovegood smiled gently down at her daughter from her workplace bench. “Well let’s have a look, here then” Luna proudly held her finger out to her mother. “Ah yes there could be no mistaking a Gernumblie bite” Pandora pulled her want out, which she always stowed away smartly in her hair that she usually wore in a bun at the nape of her neck while she was working. Pandora picked up a loose sheet of parchment and transfigured it into a bandage for her nine-year-old daughter’s finger. After ensuring her daughter was properly cared for, Pandora ushered Luna into a seat beside her. “Would like to see what I’ve been working on?” she asked. Luna nodded eagerly. Pandora smiled at her daughter and began to prepare her experiment.

Pandora turned a page in her crumpled note book. She was close to a major breakthrough in experimental time travel. After months of careful study and research, Pandora had created a spell that could allow her to travel hours even days backward in time without the use of a Time Turner. Pandora stepped back from her work bench and concentrated on her incantation, with any luck she would be able to go back in time just long enough to see Luna playing in the garden with the Gnomes. Time is one of the most complex and strongest of magic’s it had held a fascination for Pandora for as long as she could remember. Pandora pulled out a powder she had made from unicorn horn and time dust, which she had procured semi illegally from the Department of Mysteries, when she had gone to the Ministry to interview a Ministry Official for an article in the next Edition of the Quibbler. She added fairy tears to the powder creating a thick paste, which she lathered onto her unicorn hair and aspen wand. The wand was flexible, an excellent wand for an inventor, and had served her well over the years, she hoped her paste would allow her to focus her energy into incantation. Pandora began to chant Portus Tempus Retrorsum, blue light began to emit from her wand’s tip. No sooner had she cast the incantation, did Pandora realize she had made a grave error as her spell back fired and hit the Erumpent Horn on the book case behind her. She had meant to tell Xenophilius to get rid of the thing. He had brought it back from one of his travels, proclaimed it as the horn of a Crumpled Horn Snorkack, at the time she had not felt the need to correct him because, he had been so proud and triumphant at his discovery. The reaction between her spell and the horn had been a catastrophe, causing a huge explosion as her house erupted in flames and herself with it, Pandora screamed, as she saw the bright blue light of her spell encase her daughter, “Luna, my love” Pandora cried but in an instant Luna was gone. 

Luna struggled to her feet, she looked down at herself besides a few cuts scrapes, minor burns and cinched clothing she wasn’t much worse for wear. She looked around at her surroundings trying to remember exactly what had just happened. As she took in her surroundings, of the busy London streets, Luna was confused this wasn’t Ottery St. Catchpole. Where had she been sent, when her mother’s spell had backfired, then all the memories came flooding back to her, the Gnome bite, visiting her mother’s workshop, the spell that had gone terribly wrong, images of her mother screaming and burning surrounded by a bright fire filled Luna’s mind. The pain and loss became too much for poor Luna, she stumbled and collapsed on a pair of stone steps, loosing consciousness. Little did Luna know just how far from home she actually was, for when Pandora’s spell had backfired it had taken her daughter backwards in time to London 1935, where Luna collapsed on the stone steps of Wool's Orphanage. Luna’s old and familiar life in the Castle Rook of Ottery St. Catchpole with her loving parents had ended, and her new journey was about to begin.


	2. Ch. 2 Unlikely Friends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Many thanks to my beta scarletwolf1221, you are amazing, your enthusiasm for this story encourages me to keep going!

Tom sat at the right hand corner of the orphanage school yard, at the perfect vantage point to observe everything. Tom ignored the looks of mistrust and fear from the other children and chose to watch the newest occupant, Luna Lovegood or Looney (a name she is often referred to as, in whispers by the other children, who believed her to be mad). Tom had watched her carefully since he had first gotten a glimpse of her as she was carried to the orphanage sick bay. It was then that he had sensed that she was different than the other children, special, like him. In the days to follow Lovegood was released from the sick bay.  
At first, Lovegood had seemed confused, out of sorts almost as if in a sort of daze. She didn’t understand the school children’s lingo, she did not have the same hairstyle as other girls in the orphanage, she dressed different from the other girls too preferring to wear boys trousers as opposed to dresses He could never forget the blindingly bright yellow jumper she arrived in, she had refused to part with it and continued to wear it despite the tears and singe marks . She had a different way of speaking, with talk of non-existent creatures and other such information that the likes of Mrs. Cole deemed to be utter nonsense, but Tom wasn’t so sure. It was blatantly obvious that the girl did not belong here, as Tom also emphatically believed was true of himself as well. As the days turned into weeks, Tom had continued to watch the Lovegood girl from afar. She never played or joined in with the other children’s games, preferring to pick flowers, and crawl through Mrs. Cole’s prize rose bushes and talking to creatures who weren’t there. The other children tended to stay away from her afraid of catching crazy. Luna Lovegood was in her own world, and appeared content in it. However, as the weeks turned into months the girls mood darkened, her light grey eyes appeared dimmer, devoid of any spark of light. She withdrew into herself more and more, seeming to draw into greater despair.  
It had been 6 months since she had first come to Wools and Tom continued to watch her, today she was perched in the tallest tree in the yard in one of the highest branches not to far from Tom’s corner of the yard and at the perfect vantage point for him to see her clearly, and unbeknownst to him for Luna to see him clearly as well.  
Tom was rolling a twig between his two fingers causing sparks, and then he got it the sparks caught the twig a blaze, but his hand did not burn as he held the blazing twig tightly. Tom but the flame out in the dirt, and made eye contact with Wool’s newest orphan. While he stared at her she started back at him with such an intensity. It was as if a light had switched on in very sullen quiet girl's eyes, she seemed to blossom as if over night. She had a very serene smile on her face, she seemed to buzz with an air of enthusiasm.  
Then without missing a beat the young girl jumped down from her perch in the tree  
Jumping from 600 feet in the air and landing gracefully on her feet, a fate that would have landed most children at the orphanage in the medical ward with broken bones if they were lucky and the London’s hospital morgue if they weren’t.  
That’s when he knew with a certainty that he was right about her, that his moronic classmates, more like neanderthals, were right to an extant, perhaps she wasn’t just an ordinary boring sot that lost her parents and wound up in an orphanage like Wools like every other orphan here, perhaps there was something special about the peculiar girl, that she was like him.  
Tom was torn from his revere when the girl approached him and plopped down unceremoniously beside him closed her eyes and sighed contentedly, but did not utter a word  
She finally spoke after what felt like hours of anticipation,  
“You have a very powerful aura, it’s quite comforting, reminds me of home.”  
Tom was taken aback by her comment but, not one to be caught off guard, without missing a beat Tom replied, “oh and just what makes my aura more enticing than say Billy Stubbs.”

Luna made a face, “Oh Billy’s aura is rather dreadfully dull”  
Tom couldn’t help himself as he snorted  
Luna gave him a small smile before she continued,  
“So dreadful in fact that I suspect Nargles are behind it, they can be known to block even the most obscure of auras. They are attracted to the colors you see.”  
At this point Tom wasn’t really quite sure what to make of Luna Lovegood, there she went talking about strange creatures, special or not he bet that there were certainly a few too many screws loose. Nargles, colors, auras what an utter heap of spouted nonsense.  
He shook his head and just as he was about to stand up and find another part of the school yard far from the infuriating Blonde and her talk of Nargles, she spoke again.  
"Everyone’s auras are different you see it is a personification of our souls, what makes us who we truly are, the brighter the color the stronger the aura, And those like us with magical cores, our auras burn the brightest. And yours is the brightest I’ve ever seen, almost as bright as the flames you conjured.”  
Yet the second time in a minute that Tom was taken aback by the turn in this conversation, he coughed a bit and prompted her, barely concealing his excitement behind his usual mask of indifference, “Those like us?” he prompted,  
Luna looked perplexed for a minute but understanding dawned on her, “No one has told you?” She said as if he wasn’t understanding an obvious fact of the universe, like the sky being Blue, or lemons being bitter.  
She pointed at herself and said witch and at Tom, and said wizard.  
Tom stared at her blankly, he looked away embarrassed, he loathed not knowing something.  
Luna’s gaze softened, and she spoke in a melodic tone, “Have you ever made anything happen, things you couldn’t explain?”  
Angered Tom stands up and pulls the girl roughly to her feet and caging her against the fence they had been leaning against. 

“I can make things move without touching them. I can make animals do what I want them to do, without training them. I can make bad things happen to people who annoy me, Tom looked pointedly at the blonde, he took a step forward until they were chest to chest, “I can make them hurt if I want to.”  
Luna either blatantly ignored his threat, found it seemingly inconsequential, or didn’t understand the gravity of her current situation as he began to anger further, Tom was betting on the ladder.  
Luna merely smiled up at him, and calmly told him, “You’re special Tom, you have a gift that not everyone has, the muggle children are afraid of you because they don’t understand you, your a Wizard Tom and I am a witch as are my father and mother she paused and corrected herself, “were” As her eyes grew cloudy, Tom was reminded of how quiet and withdrawn she at been up until only moments ago, he was not about to let his only chance of answers fade away in a moment of grief, but before he could interfere Luna snapped out of her revere, she got a little smile as if she were about to let you in on a big secret, “will be” she decided on.  
Tom shrugged and would file this under what he would later refer to as a Lunaism.  
At that point Tom proceeded to pepper the young witch with questions, which she dutifully answered. As they were called in from their outdoor recess the pair continued to talk, one ignoring and the other seemly oblivious to the bewildered stares of their classmates at the unlikely pair. Tom was so enthralled with the conversation, to mind the lesser beings, or muggles as Luna had called them. The pair continued to talk well into the day up until dinner time.  
Luna had promised to teach him everything she knew about the magical world starting with magical creatures from Dragons to Hipogriffs to House Elfs to Goblins, Nargles, Crumpled Horn Snorkacks and the like. Luna was currently teaching him about a thestral, a breed of winged horses with a skeletal body and face with reptilian features, and wide, leathery wings that resemble a bat’s, largely known to the wizarding world as omen of misfortune only seen by those who have seen death. He also learned that the teachers of Hogwarts must have some sort of morbid fascination with them seeing as they pull the Hogwarts carriages.  
So Hogwarts he prompted, keeping Luna on track before she continued on her rant about the breeding habits of thestrals.

Luna gave him one of her secret smiles, “So the first years are taken across the Black lake in boats I’m not sure what pulls those, it might be the Grindylows, they do seem quite fond of shallow waters and moving objects.”  
Tom waved his hand for her to move along.  
“Once, we arrive at the castle my mum, Luna gets a forlorn look as her mum is mentioned but at Tom’s persuasion she is able to continue. In the years to follow Luna will discover that only Tom would be able to help her overcome her grief in those early years before Hogwarts.  
She continues, “My mum used to tell me stories about her sorting, she said they put all the first years into a group in the great hall, calling out their names one by one as they sort them into one of the Four different houses, using the Sorting Hat, “  
Tom shook his head what were the founders thinking relying on a talking piece of rubbish to determine their student’s futures.  
Luna continued, “I’ve asked Mum what his name was but she didn’t think to ask him, but he did give her recommendations to try the pudding, Mum said Hogwarts has the most delicious pudding she’s ever tasted, and Whimsy always made a delicious chocolate pudding,  
“Luna, enough focus on your house elf’s baking tell me about the houses” he all but growled exasperated.  
Not fazed in the slightest by his temper, she proceeded, “Ah yes the houses well there’s Ravenclaw my parents house, the house of knowledge, she paused and cleared her throat,  
And just as Tom thought she wouldn’t dare, Luna burst into song, “If you’ve a ready mind, Where those of wit and learning, Will always find their kind. For wit beyond measure is man’s greatest treasure.  
You might belong in Hufflepuff, Where they are just and loyal, Those patient Hufflepuffs are true and unafraid of toil  
Then there is Gryfindor where dwell the brave at heart, for being deeply loved by someone gives you strength and loving someone deeply gives you courage.” 

“Love” Tom scoffed, “what an utterly useless emotion” 

“Well I don’t know about that” Luna reasoned, “It does however cause you a great lot of pain” she smiled sadly.  
“And the the next house” Tom urged her on gently.  
When Luna got in this mood, he had learned rather quickly to proceed with caution lest he pick at the ticking time bomb and drive her back into her state of melancholy, and he couldn’t have that happen till he learned everything he could from her.  
Luna continued with her seemingly well rehearsed rendition of the old sorting hat’s song, “Perhaps in Slytherin you'll meet your real friends those cunning folks use any means to achieve their ends.” Luna paused in her singing, “They sound resourceful to me, not unlike you Tom. Just like their house symbol, the snake, they can maneuver their way out of any blunder.”  
“Do you know if” Tom paused and rephrased his sentence trying not to appear too eager for the answer, he settled with “I can speak to snakes too”  
Luna nodded, "Ah Parsletongue , it’s quite rare, like Mermish which I understand the basic greeting words because I was bitten by a Gernumblie that bestowed its magic.”  
And for just an instant his well practiced facade of indifference he perfected over the last 9 years cracked for an instant and he allowed a chuckle and smallest of real grins, devoid of his usual sneers.  
Luna giggled, and Tom found himself thinking it was a sound he wanted to hear again.  
“You May laugh now Tom Riddle but, my father did a great deal of research into the Gernumblie magic and he believes,” she paused “believed,” and again with that secret smile of hers, “will believe that the Gernumblie’s can bestow their magic in someone they feel is worthy.”  
“Is that how I can speak Parsletongue, the snakes bestowed it to me?” Tom ponders aloud.  
Luna shook her head, “From what my father always tells, told, will tell me”  
Tom rolls his eyes at the use of the three tenses again.  
Luna continued, “Parsletongue is a rare gift and is inherited through ancient bloodlines, it is usually considered, dark magic."  
“Dark as in Bad or evil?” Tom questioned  
Luna shook her head, “No but that is the common misconception, there are two types of magic light and dark. Light magic is not all good, and dark magic is not all bad. My father always said that as far as magic is concerned there is only power.”  
Tom nodded understanding, Luna started to head downstairs for Wools’ poorly prepared supper, “I’m hungry I hope there’s pudding”  
Tom gave Luna another one of his rare genuine grins, “You”ll have to wait till Hogwarts to get any of the good stuff the food they serve here is trash.  
Luna shrugged as she headed out the door to his room, calling over her shoulder, “Some things are worth waiting for.”  
Tom nodded, in full agreement as he thought back to their earlier conversation, he knew quite certainly that there was no good or evil, only power and those too weak to seek it.  
He headed down to supper, his grin turning hungry, he knew exactly which Hogwarts House he was destined for.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all the kudos and kind reviews of the previous chapter. I hope you enjoy!


	3. Never Anger A Riddle

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, I'm back and I want to thank everyone who has followed this story thus far! I really appreciate your support. I plan to update this work biweekly so be on the lookout for updates. 
> 
> Trigger Warning: there will be a torture scene involving tom and two of the muggle children in the caves, it was briefly touched on in canon and I don't go into too much detail here but, I wanted to add a warning here.

“You’re a time traveler!” Tom shook his head incredulously. “And you’re just telling me this now”  
Tom’s perfectly placed mask had slipped and he was outright gawking at the blonde in profound disbelief.  
Luna smiled up at him serenely, “Of course, Tom It didn’t seem all that important at the time.”  
Tom threw up his hands and had to refrain from rolling his eyes with exasperation “Luna you were born in another time period, almost 50 years into the future, and not once in that last four months of our _____” tom paused as he almost said acquaintance but felt it more conducive to keeping Luna at his side to allow her to feel a comradery with him, he settled on the word “friendship”  
“In the last four months of our Friendship you never found it important to mention?” Toms eyes blazed with his anger and the window in the mirror in the room cracked with his barely concealed frustration. Normally, Tom had more control but, with Luna he felt it important keep this anger at bay, he refrained from releasing his temper on her as he so causally did to the other orphans. If Luna was shocked or afraid at his outburst she made no outward sign of being phased in the slightest merely rubbed her hand along the mirrors cracked and jagged edges fixing it instantly. Tom grinned hungrily despite himself, yes he and Luna had been as she had said “channeling their aura” or in muggle terms meditating to access their magical potential more fully. At first, Tom had felt ridiculous but, when it worked and he began to feel more powerful and more in control of his abilities, he had almost apologized for scoffing at her. Truly, as dotty and seemingly oblivious to obvious facts of the world, Luna was brilliant and Tom had long since decided Luna was exceedingly useful and he planned to keep the little which at his side at whatever the cost. Tom did not like this new discovery, and he vowed that once he was at Hogwarts, he would read every book he can about time travel to ensure that Luna’s new home remained in this time period with him. Tom didn’t much care for people he preferred solitude away from the dirty muggle children in the orphanage and the prying eyes of Mrs. Cole, and he especially did not like relying on another person for anything. Luna, however, was different, she was special like him, he needed her or rather he needed the information she can give him, so he made himself an essential part of her life here at Wools. When Tom wanted to play a role he played it well. He was her confidant, the person she trusted the most. So as she explained about her life 50 years in the future with her mum and dad in what could only be described as an architectural disaster which would have surely have been condemned had it been built in Muggle London. Instead of voicing such, opinions Tom instead opted to comfort her, he had never had much experience in this strange behavior himself but, had often seen Mrs. Cole comfort the new younger children in fits of homesickness or perhaps they had been exhibiting a behavior Tom had taken it upon himself to correct. So tome mimicked Mrs. Cole putting an arm around the girl, rubbing circles along her back and spoke in soothing tones as she cried.  
In his experience emotions, especially tears were a show of weakness. He did not allow himself to have weaknesses, and truthfully it was rare that Luna did either. The girl exuded as air of wistful bliss about her, her light grey eyes often becoming glassy and thoughtful. For now, Tom would allow her these moments of weakness as they only benefitted him in the end as the they strengthened their “friendship” and the hold he would have over her in the future.  
Still, Tom worried Luna might be affecting him in turn, he had gotten so unbelievably angry last month on her behalf. Tom actively sought retribution when, some of the orphans had taken the only pair of shoes Luna owned and she had cut her feet during the Orphanage’s annual summer trip to the coast. Tom had taken the ring leaders, Amy Bensen and Billie Stubbs out to the caves along the coast. He used his compulsion as Luna called it a precursor to the Imperious Curse, Luna had called it. She often became quiet and withdrawn whenever he used it, so he refrained from using it in front of her so as not to upset her, for purely practical reasons without being influenced by emotion sentiment at all he reasoned. He merely wanted to keep Luna close, as his only tie to the magical world, he could not have her withdrawing into herself as she had been, when she first arrived at the Orphanage. At the time, he had not cared if Luna caught him using compulsion he felt that the perpetrators of hurting his Luna as he had become to think of her as needed to be punished. No one touched Tom Riddle’s things and got away with it. Tom had lured the two dirty muggles away from the rest of the orphans and brought them up to the caves, and proceeded to make them hurt, (a phenomenon Luna had referred to as a precursor to the Cruciatius curse.) So that was how she found him standing over their bodies as they twitched, begged and flailed their limbs to no avail. “Tom she’d cried you mustn’t hurt them, Tom please stop.  
Tom shook his head, refusing to lift his curse, “I won’t let them hurt you again Luna.” He replied resolutely.  
“Tom, Release the Curse Now”, her voice was firm and commanding, it left no room for argument, gone was the dreamlike quality she normally spoke in. her voice cracked his carefully constructed armor and shattered his concentration. The curse broke, and Bensen and Stubbs release sobs of relief.  
Turning to face Tom, her grey eyes wide and staring up at him, her gaze had softened, "It’s just words and childish pranks tom, I do not pay it any mind. People tend to shun or fear things that they don’t understand. I am proud to be different Tom. Those who mind don’t matter, and then she gave him one of her secret smile and that Tom had begun to think were saved especially for him and said, “and those who matter don’t mind” Luna then turned her attention to the two traumatized children checking their vitals before helping Billie to his feet and lifting Amy into her arms, the other girl heavily leaning on Luna for support. What a strange group they must have looked like making their way back to the beach. After the trip or what most of the Orphanage called The Incident, the children had stopped teasing Luna but, to Tom’s annoyance they had begun to view her as their savior or protector from Tom. The younger children often hiding behind her if he approached in the school yard. After the incident Mrs. Cole kept him locked up for almost a month afterwards accept for mealtimes, but much to Mrs. Coles befuddlement and exasperation Luna also found a way around the locks in Tom’s room to see him.  
Tom smiled to himself as he was pulled from his revere and back into the present.  
Luna then enveloped him in a hug, at first Tom stiffened before relaxing into it, you know he thought putting his worries at ease about this little time travel cinch, it didn’t matter if he had to pull apart the entire space time continuum, Luna would stay right here where she belonged by his side.

**Author's Note:**

> The words I used for Pandora's spell Tempus, is latin for time and Retrorsum is latin for backward. 
> 
> Kudos are wonderful but, your thoughts and opinions are greatly appreciated, Thanks!


End file.
